Self-Compassion may be the most important life skill

I am a big believer that the self esteem movement has caused much more harm than good over the past 30-40 years. Today’s college students according to researchers are more narcissistic than ever. Self-compassion is a new, budding area of psychological research. A focus on self esteem alone results in increasing neuroticism, emotional fragility and narcissism. Self-compassion may sound like your indulging yourself but it’s anything but that. “It is not this nimby, bimby stuff,” said Paul Gilbert, a researcher at
Kingsway Hospital in the United Kingdom. “Compassion is sensitivity to
the suffering of self and others and a commitment to do something about
it.” It involves mindfulness, common humanity and kindness. People high in self-compassion tend to have higher standards, work
harder and take more personal responsibility for their actions. That’s what I want for my children rather than becoming distracted by building their self esteem.